astronomy

South Pole Wall

South Pole Wall is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand South Pole Wall rather than just read about it. In short: The South Pole Wall (SPW or The South Pole Wall) is a massive cosmic structure formed by a giant wall of galaxies (a galaxy filament) that extends across at least 1.37 billion light-years of space, the nearest light (and consequently part) of which is aged about half a billion light-years. The structure, in its astronomical angle, is dense in five known places including one very near to the celestial South Pole and…

Key takeaways

South Pole Wall belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect South Pole Wall to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of South Pole Wall from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The South Pole Wall (SPW or The South Pole Wall) is a massive cosmic structure formed by a giant wall of galaxies (a galaxy filament) that extends across at least 1.37 billion light-years of space, the nearest light (and consequently part) of which is aged about half a billion light-years. The structure, in its astronomical angle, is dense in five known places including one very near to the celestial South Pole and is, according to the international team of astronomers that discovered the South Pole Wall, "...the largest contiguous feature in the local volume and comparable to the Sloan Great Wall at half the distance ...". Its discovery was announced by Daniel Pomarède of Paris-Saclay University and R. Brent Tully and colleagues of the University of Hawaiʻi in July 2020. Pomarède explained, "One might wonder how such a large and not-so distant structure remained unnoticed. This is due to its location in a region of the sky that has not been completely surveyed, and where direct observations are hindered by foreground patches of galactic dust and clouds. We have found it thanks to its gravitational influence, imprinted in the velocities of a sample of galaxies".

Size The wall measures over 1.37 billion light-years in length, and spans a large zone 500 million light-years away. The massive structure, at least to a very small extent, is behind the Milky Way galaxy's Zone of Avoidance (or Zone of Galactic Obscuration). The filament curves from the Perseus constellation in the Northern Hemisphere to Telescopium in the far south, in between which, skirting – slightly – over the present south celestial pole itself. It is so large that it greatly affects the local expansion of the universe. According to astronomer Tully, "We wonder if the South Pole Wall is much bigger than what we see. What we have mapped stretches across the full domain of the region we have surveyed. We are early explorers of the cosmos, extending our maps into unknown territory." According to the astronomers who discovered it, "We will not be certain of its full extent, nor whether it is unusual, until we map the universe on a significantly grander scale."

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with South Pole Wall

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what South Pole Wall claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to South Pole Wall before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about South Pole Wall ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of South Pole Wall

In research: South Pole Wall appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses South Pole Wall in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: South Pole Wall is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Astronomical objects discovered in 2020, Galaxy filaments, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for South Pole Wall outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study South Pole Wall in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what South Pole Wall means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain South Pole Wall out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is South Pole Wall in simple terms?

Why does South Pole Wall matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study South Pole Wall?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on South Pole Wall.